Author: Buffalo Winter

“Happy Royal Blue New Year”

This a great quote from Mr. Dunleavy after one of the more exciting come-from-behind wins versus the number one team in the NHL in an afternoon game to kick off the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

In the first period, Mr. Luukkonen played a huge role early, and with good stick work from the entire team, Mr. Thompson was able to score to tie the game at one assisted by Mr. Skinner who currently has earned a 10-game 17 points streak.

The second period was filled with blood in the first eight minutes as a deflected puck struck a fan in the head requiring bandages, (I did not see any netting), and Mr. Krebs participated in his first NHL fight resulting in his head bleeding onto the ice.

Before the carnage began in the second period Mr. Tuch scored his 16^th goal of the year at the 17:57 mark allowing the Sabres to start the third period up 2-1.

In the third period, Boston literally shoots half of their game’s SOG (19) and went up 3-2 with 7:35 remaining 52 seconds later Buffalo is whistled for a four-minute penalty then four seconds later another two-minute penalty to be down 5 on 3 for two minutes.

Buffalo’s penalty killers along with Mr. Luukkonen making a game-saving pad save on Mr. Pasta himself killed off the penalties, Buffalo proceeds to pull the goalie, and with 1:45 remaining in the game, Mr. Dahlin makes a block/save on Mr. Pastrnak’s shot at the empty net.

Then  Mr. Dahlin shoots the puck all the way to the opposite end boards where the puck rebounded off the dashboard to near the center of the left faceoff circle to Mr. Tuch who deftly touch passes it to Mr.Cozens whose shot beats the goalie for the 3-3 tie with 97 seconds remaining.

In overtime, Mr. Cozens stripped the puck from Mr. Burgeron, skated from the Buffalo zone deep into Boston territory while double teamed dropped the puck back to Mr. Tuch in the slot who patiently avoided two defenders before snapping a greasy wrister with 67 seconds remaining for the win.

Buffalo is now riding a six-game winning streak and looks to make it seven tonight on the road in Canada’s capital versus the Ottawa Senators.

Last night’s 6-3 victory over the visiting Red Wings highlights how far the Sabres young corps of players have come in learning, earning experience, and developing into a solid winning team.

It appeared that most of the 19,070 seats were filled with Hockey fans in a game that meant a little bit more after the blizzard we endured at times tragically here along the Lake this past week.

One NHL slogan today is, “no lead is safe”, as witnessed by Detroit’s four-goal deficit comeback versus Pittsburgh the night before fueling hope for the Red Wings as Detroit snapped three quick goals in less than five minutes in the first half of the third period.

As HC Granato and some players pointed out in post-game interviews they are getting better at holding leads and on a night when Mr. Thompson, Mr. Tuch, and Mr. Dahlin are held off the score sheet there was production across the board.

Detroit owned the third period with three goals and 17 SOG but came up far short as they were penalized a couple of minutes after their third score and that seemed to cool things off but they pulled the goalie with 4:55 remaining.

Mr. Luukkonen held on to the puck at the 4:11 mark and after the face off Buffalo iced the puck at 3:55 Commentator Mr. Ray remarked it was good icing and that the team just needs to be patient.

Sure enough, 18 seconds later Captain Okposo completes his hat trick with a happy net goal, and it’s hats off for the Captain, a five-game winning streak, second highest scoring team, and the second-best power play in the NHL.

Sabres completed a three-game road trip beginning with the defending Cup Champions, the tough Coyotes, and finishing last night by beating the Knights.

The Sabres visiting sin city last night scored a team hat trick by scoring three uninterrupted goals in the second period to take a 3-0 lead on seven shots while at the other end of the ice Mr. Luukkonen stopped all 10 shots he faced.

Mr. Skinner began the festivities less than two minutes into the second period with a wicked wrister over the netminder’s blocker then the Knight’s goaltender struck with Tage Fright watches as Mr. Thompson scores his 50th point and 26th goal of the season.  

Clanging a shot off the inside corner to score his first of the season Mr. Pilut gives Buffalo the three-goal lead as the assists went to Mr. Krebs who won the offensive faceoff to Captain Okposo who passed it back to the point.

Mr. Luukkonen played extremely well facing 43 shots with nearly two dozen shots coming in the third period and one Penalty Shot as Buffalo’s netminder stopped 41 SOG from the Knights contributing to the Sabres first road victory in Nevada.

Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen is playing so well that after making the save on the Penalty Shot with approximately seven minutes remaining and preserving the two-goal lead he confidently slapped the puck at the dasherboards.

The Sabres riding a four-game winning streak and scoring the most goals in the NHL to date are playing one home game in the middle of the upcoming Holiday week with the Lightning this Friday night.

Sporting their black and red bison head logo sweaters last night the Buffalo Sabres scored six goals in one period for the second time in one week as the Sabres shutout the Kings at home 6-0 in another impressive offensive output.

Buffalo did not score six goals in the first period and coast to victory instead they played a tight defensive game while killing off the first two penalties whistled in the game into the second period and then seemingly scored at will in the third period.

Mr. Anderson earns his first shutout since March of 2019 which was against the Sabres, as the Kings fired 40 shots to Buffalo’s 31, both teams were 50% on faceoffs and Los Angeles earned 22 blocks for the game highlighting the wide SOG disparity during the game.

Los Angeles tagged with two penalties at the end of the second and beginning of the third period provided a 5 on 3 that Buffalo scored immediately on to get the onslaught started and after four consecutive Buffalo power plays the Sabres earned their third penalty of the game.

This was a sit at the edge of your seat game even after Buffalo scored the first goal less than two minutes into the third period on the power play and after being heavily outshot in the first two periods this game was nowhere near being won.

Halfway through the third period Buffalo goes up 3-0 aided by Mr Olofsson and JJ Peterka’s even strength goals tallied 13 seconds apart and three minutes later the Kings take one penalty right after another that Buffalo capitalized on to forge a 5-0 lead.

With less than ninety seconds remaining Mr. Asplund carries the puck into the zone and passes to Mr. Olofsson who one-handed puck handles across the front of the net and as he goes past backhands a pass to Mr. Krebs at the top of the blue ice for goal number six.

Buffalo begins a three-game road trip versus the defending Cup Champions Thursday night then to Arizona to take on the Coyotes in their “home rink” Saturday night culminating with a visit to sin city hopefully Jackie Vegas who is on IR will be healthy enough to play.